Song learning with audiovisual compound stimuli in zebra finches

We investigated the effects of audiovisual compound training on song learni ng in zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata. In the first experiment, presenta tion of a stuffed adult zebra finch male was found to be reinforcing to zeb ra finch males in an operant task. In a separate experiment, zebra finch ma les were reared without their father from day 7 after hatching onwards. Bet ween 35 and 76 days, they were placed in isolation and exposed to taped son gs of a zebra finch male, according to a random schedule (20 presentations/ h). For half of the birds, presentation of the song coincided with presenta tion of a stuffed zebra finch male. For the remaining birds, each presentat ion of the song was followed by presentation of a stuffed male. The birds w ere subsequently isolated until day 142, when their own songs were recorded and analysed. Birds in both groups shared significantly more song elements with their tutor songs than with an unfamiliar song. There was no signific ant difference in song learning between the groups; These results confirm t hat zebra finches can learn part of their songs from taped tutor songs. Fur thermore, simultaneous presentation of the tutor song and a relevant, salie nt visual stimulus is not superior to sequential presentation. (C) 1999 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.